Elara The dinner table was too quiet. A little too quiet, if I was being honest. I had become so used to Ella and Zoe’s incessant chatter that I never tired of it, and so when they were suddenly silent, it felt eerie. Ella was sitting to my left, swinging her legs underneath her chair. She was p
Sarah set down her spoon with a clatter and reached for her glass of wine. “Moonwolves have been extinct for centuries,” she said idly, swirling her wine around in her glass. “So we thought,” Alaric cut in. “But the powder has been tested thoroughly, and it does contain Moonwolf blood. Which means
Elara The test wasn’t here. I had searched the dresser, the bedside table, the floor beneath the bed, and even the laundry basket, but the pregnancy test was nowhere to be found. I pressed a hand against my stomach, trying to calm the anxious knot that was starting to twist there. It was fine.
Alaric The fire had long since burned down to embers by the time I woke up, the faint glow barely illuminating the dark room. Fat snowflakes drifted lazily through the air outside the window, the glass frosted with white starbursts. Had I really fallen asleep on my office sofa? As I moved to sit
She had to know that I wasn’t going anywhere. She had to know that this was only temporary, that Sarah wouldn’t be living here forever and that I still wanted her to be my wife. She deserved that much, at the very least. But when I entered the bedroom, she wasn’t there. The bed was neatly made,
ElaraThe cold seeped through the stone walls and into my bones, settling there like frostbite. My wrists ached from the weight of the icy iron chains, and the rough edges of the metal dug into the skin just enough to keep me from forgetting that they were there. I could barely lift my head, but eve
I could only stare.“I… don’t understand,” I breathed, shaking my head slowly as if doing so would somehow dissolve the image in front of me. But she didn’t disappear. She didn’t even waver.Tears lined her eyes. “My daughter.”Daughter. The word echoed so sharply that it felt like it cracked someth
SarahThe footsteps echoed down the long, dark corridor. I didn’t need to look up to know who it was; the way the other moonwolves cowered was enough for me.The footsteps weren’t hurried. They weren’t aggressive. They came slowly, measured and deliberate, heels clicking against the floor like each
The school was bustling when we arrived, the parking lot teeming with parents and kids, all hurrying toward the bright red doors at the front of the building. Alex’s grip on my hand tightened as we approached, his eyes wide as he took in the sea of unfamiliar faces.“It’s okay,” I whispered, crouchi
ElaraThe house was alive with the all-too-familiar chaos of a school morning. Somewhere down the hall, Ella was shouting at Zoe about taking too long in the bathroom, and Zoe’s shrill rebuttal wasn’t far behind. The smell of toast lingered in the air, mingling with the faint bite of fall that crept
ElaraThe air that night was quiet—quieter than it had been in weeks. The house had settled into the kind of stillness that only came with exhaustion, the last embers in the fireplace flickering softly behind the glass. Even the wind outside had gone still, barely rustling the edges of the curtains
ElaraThe lanterns flickered softly against the night sky, their warm glow swaying in time with the breeze that danced through the courtyard. Even from this distance, I could still hear the faint music from the reception, the low murmur of conversation punctuated by bursts of laughter.But out here,
ElaraThe music was soft and sweet, drifting lazily over the twinkling lights strung across the open-air pavilion. Everything felt golden—the warm glow of lanterns, the hum of conversation over glasses of bubbly champagne, the faint crackle of the bonfire flickering in the distance.But none of it c
“Thank you,” he murmured, his voice cracking ever so slightly. “Thank you for giving me this.”I ran my fingers through his hair, gently pushing it back from his forehead. “You don’t have to thank me for anything, Alaric. This baby… it’s part of both of us.”His hands remained on my stomach as he li
ElaraThe house felt different as we stepped inside, the soft click of the door behind us sealing out the world beyond. It wasn’t just the warmth that greeted me, or the faint glow of the early morning sun filtering through the windows—it was something deeper. A stillness. A kind of quiet I hadn’t r
I wanted to tell her she was wrong—that this wasn’t some grand destiny I had been walking toward all my life. But I couldn’t. Not when I had felt it myself. That surge of power that wasn’t entirely my own. The way it had shattered the chains and driven Sarah back like she was nothing more than air.
ElaraThe sunlight hit harder than I expected, even though it had only been hours since I’d been trapped in that cavern. I squinted against the sudden golden rays of the morning sun, blinking rapidly as my eyes adjusted. But the others—the moonwolves—weren’t as fortunate.They stumbled as they emerg